1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an information processing apparatus, an image forming method, and a storage medium in a variable data printing (VDP) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image forming apparatus capable of printing a large number of copies at a high speed has been developed. A digital technique has been introduced to a printing control for the image forming apparatus to facilitate printing different for each copy of printed products. Along with that, direct mail has been conventionally printed by offset printing, but now it is printed by an image forming apparatus using digital techniques.
Printing direct mail by the image forming apparatus enables producing and sending an individual printing for each individual being an addressee. For example, according to the gender of an addressee, a drawing pattern to be printed is changed, and/or the color of paper is changed. Information about a commercial product recommended to a customer of the addressee can be printed based on a history indicating that the addressee has purchased commercial products in the past.
A technique for that purpose includes a VDP technique. In the VDP, print design data being basics are generated. The generated design data includes a variable portion and a proper portion. Information suited for each addressee is put into the variable portion based on data extracted from a customer information database (DB) and printing is performed. For example, a product image suitable for a name of each addressee and past information about the purchase of each addressee can be put into the variable portion. The use of the VDP technique allows more effective direct mail to be printed and produced.
VDP printing is directed to a large number of addressees on an order of ten thousand addressees. For that reason, it is unrealistic to confirm whether each printed product achieves the expected result by separately printing or previewing. As a technique for that purpose, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-217060 discusses a technique which automatically determines whether an image is tolerable for printing in consideration of the resolution of an object at the time of printing variable data in the VDP printing.
In the conventional technique, if a VDP test print is executed to confirm the combination of objects such as a figure and a picture used for VDP, all records need to be printed. This causes a problem that a very large number of sheets need to be printed for the test print and a burden required for a user to make confirmation is large.